Contact: Ann
J. Corley, Executive Director, (816)525-4739
August 28, 2006
MISSOURI RECEIVES C+ GRADE FOR PAIN POLICIES
Missouri Pain Initiative Sees Room for Improvement
Kansas City, MO: A new state-by-state
report card shows that Missouri is only slightly above average
nationwide when it comes
to policies needed to help persons with pain find relief. According
to the report, Achieving Balance in State Pain Policy: A Progress
Report Card, released by the University of Wisconsin’s
Pain & Policy Studies Group (PPSG), Missouri earned a grade
of “C+”. Forty-one states and the District of Columbia
received a score above a “C”, eight states received
an average grade of “C” and one state received a “D+”.
No state received an “F”. The states with the highest
grades did the best job of balancing policies designed to prevent
prescription drug abuse without interfering with access to these
medications for patients in pain.
“The Report Card tells us just how far we still have to
go,” said
Clara Applegate, MD, President of the Missouri Pain Initiative
(MOPI). MOPI, a statewide organization of health care professionals
and patient advocates working towards quality pain management,
has been working hard to improve pain management for Missourians.
Applegate said that the report card reflects more on state
policies than it does on patient care. “Our goal at MOPI
is for state laws to promote quality pain care and a balanced
approach
to pain treatment, and we will continue to work toward that.
We feel that it is equally important to educate health care
professionals as well as pain sufferers.” said Applegate.
She pointed to collaboration with the State Advisory Council
on Pain and
Symptom Management on an informational brochure and website,
as well as activities all over the state during Pain Awareness
Month in September. “We are moving toward better pain
control throughout the state.”
Nationwide, the PPSG report concludes
that state pain policies are improving, and credits state healthcare
regulatory boards
as the “driving force” behind the positive policy
changes that occurred between 2000 and 2006. “One way to
improve our state’s pain policies is for our state legislature
to remove outdated and ambiguous language that exists in our
state laws,” said Ann J. Corley, MS, Executive Director
of the Missouri Pain Initiative. “The language, while
intended to prevent the misuse of prescription drugs, may
be inadvertently
making it difficult for persons with pain to get prescription
pain medicines.”
Uncontrolled pain is a significant public health problem.
More than seventy-five million Americans suffer from persistent
pain, and each year another twenty-five million experience
acute pain
as a result of injuries or surgery. For persons with cancer,
one-third experience pain at the time of diagnosis and
more than two-thirds have significant pain as the disease
progresses.
Despite
the fact that most pain can be relieved with existing therapies,
barriers exist that prevent adequate treatment.
For additional information, visit:
The Missouri Pain Initiative – http://www.missouripain.org
The Pain and Policy Studies Group -- http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/
The Advisory Council on Pain and Symptom Management --
http://www.dhss.mo.gov/PainManagement/ or call DHSS
at 573/751-6459.
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